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Usually ships in 1-2 business days | | | | | | Twenty miles south of the Arizona-Mexico border, the rugged, beautiful Sierra Madre mountains begin their dramatic ascent. Almost 900 miles long, the range climbs to nearly 11,000 feet and boasts several canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon. The rules of law and society have never taken hold in the Sierra Madre, which is home to bandits, drug smugglers, Mormons, cave-dwelling Tarahumara Indians, opium farmers, cowboys, and other assorted outcasts. Outsiders are not welcome; drugs are the primary source of income; murder is all but a regional pastime. The Mexican army occasionally goes in to burn marijuana and opium crops -- the modern treasure of the Sierra Madre -- but otherwise the government stays away. In its stead are the drug lords, who have made it one of the biggest drug-producing areas in the world. Fifteen years ago, journalist Richard Grant developed what he calls "an unfortunate fascination" with this lawless place. Locals warned that he would meet his death there, but he didn't believe them -- until his last trip. During his travels Grant visited a folk healer for his insomnia and was prescribed rattlesnake pills, attended bizarre religious rituals, consorted with cocaine-snorting policemen, taught English to Guarijio Indians, and dug for buried treasure. On his last visit, his reckless adventure spiraled into his own personal heart of darkness when cocaine-fueled Mexican hillbillies hunted him through the woods all night, bent on killing him for sport. With gorgeous detail, fascinating insight, and an undercurrent of dark humor, God's Middle Finger brings to vivid life a truly unique and uncharted world. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Richard Grant | | Paperback: | 288 pages | | Publisher: | Free Press | | Publication Date: | March 04, 2008 | | Package Length: | 8.2 inches | | Package Width: | 5.4 inches | | Package Height: | 0.8 inches | | Package Weight: | 0.7 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 101 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 101 customer reviews )
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22 of 23 found the following review helpful:
Simply a good read. Jun 21, 2008
By B.G.
When I first came across this book, I sort of pictured the story of a foolish quest by a white man way over his head in some of the most dangerous parts of Mexico. I imagined that the title of the book reflected his hardships while doing hands-on research for God's Middle Finger, leaving the author wondering why exactly he decided to travel one of the most violent places in North America - alone - to begin with, with comical results for the reader. While the story does certainly touch on some dangerous encounters, I was instead surprised to see that the title is more of a reflection of life in rural Mexico; it's as if God himself turned a blind eye to this land and the poverty and violence is reflected in the people there.
God's Middle Finger certainly has its comical elements to it but what I most got out of reading this was the amazing contrast between the lives of Mexicans and those of us Americans right across the border. Life in rural Mexico is difficult, brutal, unforgiving, and spontaneously violent. To balance out the many hardships faced, Mexicans overindulge in alcohol, cocaine, and religious festivities involving a laughably large amount of the two.
The book is almost a perfect length, with a lot of ground covered in the story and never is there a point where it feels as though the author is dwelling too much on a certain point. Despite describing quite successfully the brutal and difficult lives Mexicans face, Grant never comes across as preachy, or that the rest of us are spoiled for enjoying much less violent lives. In fact, on a few occasions he reacts with scorn towards the absurd level of machoism that Meixcan men display, and their often callous disregard for human life.
The only reason I gave this book four stars as opposed to five is due to its abrupt ending. After returning from Mexico, I expected Grant to give us at least a quick chapter of reflections on his experience in the Sierra Madre, but instead I turned the page to find the bibliography and wondering "what happened next??" Nevertheless, this is one of the most entertaining books I've read in some time, and I'll definitely be checking out more of Grant's work.
16 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 the young gringo Sep 19, 2008
By David W. Straight
"The old gringo came to Mexico to die" is how the second chapter of Fuentes' fine novel The Old Gringo begins. That novel (made into a movie) is about Ambrose Bierce, who disappeared in Mexico during the revolution. In that novel Bierce says that being shot in front of a Mexican stone wall is much preferable to falling down the cellar stairs or dying in a hospital. You get the feeling with God's Middle Finger that Grant must have a similar deathwish: Grant pushes fate to the limit and, still alive by some strange quirk of chance, comes back and gives fate an even stronger jab. It this were live TV rather than a book Grant wrote you might be yelling "Go back!" at the TV or covering your eyes. This is a harrowing book, with an appallingly close sense of imminent death.
The book begins with Grant being hunted by half-drunken drug gang members: one of them told him that killing Grant would "please his trigger finger", and Grant is on their home turf--they know the area and he does not. They are having fun--sport--and Grant at this point is terrified. The episode resumes in the last chapter, and in between you see how Grant got into that predicament. This area of Mexico is bad, very bad indeed, but you find that there's really bad and really really bad, and then worse yet. There is no effective difference between the drug gangs and what passes for law enforcement. In one town the police chief and some of his men make Grant join them in snorting lines of cocaine, and as touchy as the situation becomes, it's a walk in the park compared to much of what Grant encounters. But Grant keeps returning, pushing deeper into the worst parts of the area, pushing the envelope.
Most of us, with exceptions such as Sebastian Junger who is quoted on the cover of the book "you can't decide whether to keep reading or go to Mexico to see for yourself", would happily stay a long way away. If we did feel brave and foolhardy enough to go near the fringes, the first time we had stone killers point their AK-47s at us, we'd leave in a great fornication of a hurry (as the book might phrase it) never to return. This is a wonderfully-written book, hair-raising to a degree that would put any Stephen King novels to shame, one that you won't forget.
27 of 33 found the following review helpful:
Hmmm.... Aug 30, 2008
By Nina Langford
Although I enjoyed reading this book I am left feeling a little bit annoyed. I have travelled many times into the areas Richard Grant writes about and have had very different experiences.
We have had picnics at the side of streams high in the Sierras, have sat in the square in San Bernardo drinking beer scores of times, drank whisky on the river bank in Chinipas, drove hundreds of miles on dirt roads and camped in a tent. We even went down into Batopilas on our 1969 Lambretta with our dog in a basket on the back and spent the night down there.
Although I don't dispute what he is saying, I think that there is also another aspect to this beautiful area. If you go to seek out the danger in any part of the world you will find it, whether it's a city or wilderness. This area is definitely worth a visit and I would hate anyone to miss out because they have read this book.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Really so dangerous??? Sep 19, 2009
By Roberto Pedraza
"Chivizcoyo"
No doubt is a well written book by a gifted story teller. But just came a month ago back from Chihuahua's Sierra Madre, (I live in central Mexico) spent two weeks birding and doing nature photgraphy there with my wife in areas far away from the Copper Canyon, Creel and all the normal tourist spots and not a single problem. We were riding our own jeep in order to be able to visit one of the few remaining nesting sites of the thick-billed parrots 6 hours north-west of Basaseachi Waterfall (Tutuaca) in the worst-middle-of-nothing road you can imagine. But ALL of the people we encountered in our trip was the most helpful and nicest country-people. We never felt threatened or endangered, encountered trucks with loggers, miners, cattle-ranchers (for sure some narcos also) and no problem!! Made stops in Cuahtemoc, Cebadillas, Vallecillos,Creel, Yahuirachic and other small communities, an army checkpoint...... and did not found any risk situation. No doubt there is trouble in that area of my country, and a lot of violence thanks to the narcos up there and their drug smuggling, but if you have common sense, know how to move and you are not looking for trouble is a wonderful place to visit. I think Mr. Grant embellished quite a bit his story and was looking by purpose for trouble. Who in the world would have cocaine and beers with local folks and police men if you dont whant trouble???
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Entertaining trip into dangerous and beautiful territory Nov 27, 2009
By J. Fuchs
"jax76"
As might be expected from the title and the cover blurb by Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm), God's Middle Finger is of the macho school of non-fiction reporting made popular by Jon Krakauer (Into Thin Air). Richard Grant is an intrepid risk-taker, and the opening of this book, in which he is being hunted by a bunch of drunk, coked up narco-Cowboys with itchy trigger fingers is one of the most gripping first chapters I've ever read. After that, we are transported back to the beginning of Grant's journey, one that becomes increasingly more foolhardy as it progresses and one in which, ironically, Grant becomes more and more disturbed by the machismo of Mexican culture.
I loved the book for its look into what sounds like one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, and one which I will no doubt never see due to both the destruction of the natural habitat by logging and over-grazing, and the danger of travel there due to the violent cultivation and transport of drugs. Grant's account of his attempt to travel the entire length of the Sierra Madre, culminating with a trip into the so-called "Golden Triangle" that is the hub of Mexican drug production and run by the local narco-mafiosos, is well-written and almost always entertaining, while occasionally heart-breaking as well. The rest of the book never quite holds up to the drama of the opening paragraph, but I was never bored reading it, and it definitely made be thankful as all get-out to have been born in the United States.
Grant remains largely non-judgmental, as befits a good anthropology writer, although he is never a neutral observer, choosing to get high with some of the people he visits and indulging in some truly reckless behavior. If it all feels a bit exaggerated in places, it's still quite entertaining, and by the end, Grant's emotions are all too real. Well worth reading for anyone interested in Mexico, drug trafficking, or indigenous American peoples.
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